Tuesday, May 3, 2011

I'm really enjoying the new-sew faux Roman shade I created for my kitchen window (click here for tutorial). The black background of the fabric is great for blocking the strong western sunlight, and the cheerful colors in the fabric are light and summery-feeling. I wanted to add more of those colors to my kitchen, especially the aqua color. So I was excited to find these inexpensive towels at Target:

I went back to the fabric store and bought just a few inches of fabric (1/4 yard was more than enough). I cut two strips of fabric 5 inches wide and just a little longer than the width of my towels:

I pressed the top and bottom edges under 1/2 inch with my iron, creating nice neat edges. Then I simply hot-glued on the strip of fabric to the bottom of each towel:

I folded under the edge of each side, then folded the remaining fabric and hot-glued it to the back of the towel:

As a finishing touch, I hot-glued on some gimp to cover the top edge of the fabric. The gimp was just $1.50 per yard at my discount fabric store, and one yard was more than enough.

Aren't the finished towels cute?

Now, will the glued-on fabric hold up to washing? We'll see. I think it probably will, but I'll let you know if it fails. If my past experience with getting hot-glue stuck on fabric is any indication, it should hold up well. Of course, making these towels would be an easy sewing project, but I wanted to try this no-sew method.

**Update, one week later: I've washed and dried these towels twice now, and the hot glue is holding strong!**

And while I had my glue gun out, I completed another fun project. When I was buying my 1/4 yard of fabric, I noticed this fringe that went really well with my fabric:

The fringe was $5.00 per yard; I bought 1/2 yard, thinking I would make tassels for the lamps that flank my kitchen sink.

I came home and searched through my bits and pieces of trim, and came up with a pretty good combination:

As you can see, I used a candle cup as the base for each tassel. When they were complete, I added these toppers:

I bought these on clearance after Christmas; each one cost me 25 cents. I like the way there's both a male and a female cardinal, and both work with the colors of my fabric. (I neglected to take a photo of the tassels before I hung them on my lamps, so these pictures aren't the best. Sorry about that.)

Here's a little clearer photo with the lamp turned off:

And here's a late-afternoon photo of my kitchen sink with its new accessories:

All together, I spent about $11.00 and a little time for two new towels and two tassels. I'm pleased with my work. What do you think?

Love the towels, Richella! What a great idea to dress up some plain towels. I would like to know if it holds up in the wash. I'd probably want to keep those for show, but I know my son or hubby would wind up wiping their hands on it, so it would have to be washed!

Next time, instead of hot glue, try ironing on a little Stitch Witchery and then running the "glued" down product through a sewing machine. The SW is more flexible and flatter and so will feel better in the hand when the towels are being used. The thread will hold it all together better when the SW inevitably starts failing.

Sooo cute, Richella! l love the way you embellished the towel.And guess what? I bought those same little birdies at Target after Christmas. I think I got tan and white ones, no red. But they were the cutest things ever!

Hi Richella! I'm just coming back over to say thank you so much for linking this up to our Inspiration Friday party this week. We love having you join in the fun and we appreciate you being a friend to us at the Fence! :-)Vanessa

I just started a linky party this past Tuesday. It was a great success with over 50 link ups! I would love it if you would participate next week! It's called $10 Tuesdays and it's for things that cost less than $10 and take 20-30 mins (ish) to complete. I love inexpensive and quick projects and I'm guessing others will too ;) Thanks so much for considering.Tinahttp://sweetfloweret.blogspot.com/PS. I'm GIVING away 50 button pony tailers this month! Come visit and claim yours ;)

Richella, you know how much I loooove cute kitchen towels!!! Those aqua towels look fabulous with that fabric, which by the way, I ADORE! Looks GREAT! I love the tassels too. That's something I've never made before. Very cute!

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Child of God, apprentice to Jesus, wife of a great guy, and mom of three wonderful sons, I'm a blessed and profoundly grateful woman. I'm also a writer and speaker, and I serve on the Ministry Team and Board of Directors of Renovaré, a ministry dedicated to Christian spiritual formation.

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